Public Speaking

I enjoy sharing my experiences and advice with students and early career professionals, and have been fortunate enough to do so at events all around the world. I have a short list of my past speaking topics below. If any of these exact topics or something similar to them interest you, please either send Optica a request on the traveling lecturer form, or reach out to me directly.

Academic Workshops

• "Inside a Career making Optics Hardware for Space." University of Arizona Wyant College of Optical Sciences Winter School, Tucson, AZ, January 8th, 2026

• "Write a great proposal by thinking like an engineer." Optica Frontiers in Optics, Denver, CO, October 26th, 2025

• "R&D Careers in Industry." SPIE Optics+Photonics, San Diego, CA, USA, August 5th, 2025

• "Resume and Interviewing Workshop." CU Boulder Optica Student Chapter, Boulder, USA, April 16th, 2025

• "Skills to work on now for a future in industry." SPIE Photonics West, San Francisco, USA, January 28th and 29th, 2025

• "CV and interview success: Guidance from Optica's Ambassador Dr. Benjamin Cromey." University of Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany, November 25, 2024

• "Industrial affiliates Prep on Resumes and Interviewing!" The University of Arizona, SOCk Community Speaker Series, Tucson, AZ, October 25th, 2024

• "Write a great proposal by thinking like an engineer" Optica Frontiers in Optics, Denver, CO, September 22nd, 2024

• "Critical thinking for optical engineers: How to use the engineering process to aid projects at any scale." Optica "The Photonics Spectrum 2024", Delhi, India, August 10th, 2024

• "The World of Optical Engineering: Hardware Careers." Optica Career Accelerator, Estes Park, CO, USA, January 23rd, 2024

• "Academic to Engineer: Skills to work on now for a future in Industry." Washington State University Physics and Astronomy Department colloquium series, Pullman, WA, Feburary 22nd, 2024

• "Resumes and interviews for academics headed to Industry." Washington State University, USA, February 21st, 2024

• "Engineering lessons for space telescopes and graduate students." Optica IONS Munich, Germany, July 30th, 2023

• "Designing Achievable Optical Systems for the lab and for space." Optica online workshop, April 28th, 2022.

Panel Discussions

• Panelist, "Scaling Co-Packaged Optics: Insights from Cross-Domain Engineering and Ecosystem Collaboration." SPIE Photonics West, San Francisco, California, January 21st, 2026

• Panelist, "Doing cool S#!* with optics." Optica Frontiers in Optics, Denver, CO, October 26th, 2025

• Panelist, "Keynote Panel: Evolving Process Development in Optics and Photonics." SPIE Optics and Photonics, San Diego, CA, USA, August 4th, 2025

• Panelist, "Academic, Industry, Government... what's right for you?" Optica Frontiers in Optics, Denver, CO, USA, September 24, 2024

• Panelist, "Student Chapter Best Practices." SPIE Optics+Photonics, San Diego, CA, USA, August 16th, 2024

• Panelist, "Careers in Industry," Optica Frontiers in Optics, Tacoma, WA, USA, October 11th, 2023

•  Moderator, "The Great Careers Showdown: An exploration of Careers in Optics and Photonics." SPIE Optics+Photonics, San Diego, CA, USA, August 22nd, 2023    

• Moderator, "Why are we talking about the the talent shortage in Quantum and what can we do about it?" Optica Quantum 2.0, Denver, CO, June 23rd, 2023